Tag Archives: Kinds of readers

We considered nine kinds of readers in the first post; only one type of reader in the second post; and, in a comment after that second post (from an author in the United Kingdom) that let me continue this discussion today…

Well…

Why don’t I just share that comment :-)

“There are different types of readers, or, rather, readers with different levels of understanding and appreciation. Once a reader has reached a level (about reading age 11) to be able to understand a simple newspaper they need only increase their vocabulary to become a skilled reader but this does not make them a good interpreter of what they are reading. Some folk only read fiction, others only non-fiction. I like your cereal packet image [ from the post on July 4th ]. I used to do that – read every word I saw but there are still books, like Proust, that I cannot enjoy reading and give up. It is the level of thinking that goes into the reading process that differentiates readers. As long as there is a variety of reading matter we can enjoy the written word.”

So…

However many kinds or types of readers there are ( see here, here, here, and here…), there are also “different levels of understanding and appreciation”—even for the same reader at different stages in their reading journey…

After a bit of searching, I found a relatively simple yet somewhat academic slideshow about Literary Appreciation:

So…

Beyond the various stages of appreciation that scholars have determined and that readers gain as they continue to read over the years, there are the very private and complex Appreciations that each individual reader acquires in their lifetime………

Anyone feel like continuing the conversation in the comments…?

Share your ideas on types of readers or levels of reading…?

Or, perhaps, share what you’d rather discuss in the Realms of Reading, Writing, or Publishing…?
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Taking that last link will introduce you to our topic of conversation and 9 purported types of readers…

Though, in that last post, I did make allowances for many, many more kinds of readers…

I suppose you could start at slow and fast readers; then, perhaps, old-book-readers and cereal-box-readers…

However, the reader who commented on our last post (allowing us to continue this conversation) and who happens to be an author from Australia, said:

“As far as I’m concerned there is only one type of reader – a human being who picks up a book, trains their eyes on the page, recognises the marks on the page as letters, which make up words, which they miraculously understand. This miracle is probably due the attention of a good teacher who taught the lucky reader how to decipher these mysterious marks in elementary school. A person who does not do this is a non-reader and they need the help of a good and caring teacher also :-) “

So, this author sees only readers and non-readers, which might seem narrow minded; although, it could also be seen as just as valid as (actually, more valid than) merely old-book-readers and cereal-box-readers—that last differentiation leaving out millions of people…

We certainly seem able to get along quite well with classifications like those who always sneeze a lot and those who don’t…

“Categories are how we navigate the world, for better or for worse—this impulse toward organization helps us (to borrow Umberto Eco’s wonderful phrase) make infinity comprehensible, but its perilous flipside is the seedbed of stereotypes.”

So, our writer from Australia is absolutely avoiding stereotyping…

What do You think…?

Or, should I ask what do you Feel…?

Perhaps, the number and types of readers (if there are more than pure and simple Readers…) is something that depends on each type of individual…

Oh my! Do I have to now ask how many types of individuals there are? :-)

Really, what’s your take on types of readers?

Do we need to determine 3 or 5 or 50 kinds of readers?

Perhaps it depends on how each of us Sees the World, eh?

And, if you leave a comment about how many types of readers there are (or should be…), I hope you’ll say just a bit about why…
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Our last discussion—about book promotion—ended with the post on June 29th…

And, the first thing I feel I should say about this new conversation is that I suspect there are just as many different kinds of readers as there are, and have been, and will be human beings…

All humans have a unique personality and soul; so, shouldn’t each one be a unique reader…?

Perhaps…

Though…

We seem to be able to classify humans in many other categories without needing a different category for each human…

So, John and Sue both look the same, to most folks, when they shoot a basketball—they have the “same” shooting style—they’re in the same category, right?

If not, we’d loose a valuable way of ordering things…

And, even if John and Sue can be put in the same category, we can still notice subtle differences in their shooting styles; yet, we can generally agree they’re in the same category; though, they’re in different subdivisions of that category…

Perhaps it works the same way with types of readers; but, with more possibility of varying subdivisions…?

If there’s a scholar of types of readers out there, please prove me wrong in the comments :-)

I just glanced at Google and there are separate articles on the 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13 different types of readers…

But, even though I encourage all of you to create as many kinds of readers as you want (and, talk about them in the comments...), I’ll share the 9 Types of Readers You Definitely Know, to help you warm up your own particular Differentiation Function…

By the way, the words “You Definitely Know” could well be a come on to get clicks…

Check out that last link to read descriptions of these 9 types:

The “Weekend Warrior” Reader

The Die-Hard “MUST READ EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING” Reader

The Obsessive Author-Specific Bibliophile

The Tentative Reader

The Intellect

The Snobby Reader

The “Goes to Book Club for Wine and Conversation” Reader

The Shy Reader

The Lifelong Book Lover

And, as a partial proof of my earlier contention that there are an infinite number of categories, you could profitably pair-up any of those 9 types and create yet more valid varieties of readers…

How about the Snobby/Tentative type…

So…

If enough folks add their comments to this conversation, we just might be able to create our own listing of types of readers, eh?

Finally, a reminder that you can always leave a comment that express your desire for new topics to discuss (in the realms of Reading, Writing, and Publishing)…
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